Nightmare
by unavoidable-k
Summary: After being plagued by a continuous string of nightmares, One finds himself in a very dark place. Six notices and decides to confront him about it. Brief mention of suicide. Request!


The sun had yet to set when Nine and Seven returned from their day's scavenging. They considered it their 'bonding time' and the twins were more than happy to shove them out in the emptiness so they could spend some 'alone time' together.

Usually, they returned on the cusp of dusk, so it was surprising to see them back so early. One usually took it upon himself to berate them for being 'late' (at least it was late to him) but he was both confused and slightly pleased by their sudden return. He didn't trust the emptiness. He never had and he never will.

Worryingly enough, the pair looked slightly disturbed by something, as if they'd seen a ghost or apparition. The others were immediately curious to hear why they looked so uneasy. One stood nearby, ready to shoot down any of Nine's fantastical stories about ghosts or monsters or anything else that wasn't plausible. He smirked to himself.

"You two look like you've seen a ghost!" Two exclaimed. "Is everything alright?" Five stood behind Two, wringing his hands in his usual fashion. Six also looked eager to hear what it was; people generally flocked to him when the situation involved strange things. (Six didn't know a single thing about the paranormal, but it was nice to get some attention once in a while).

"We saw the machine..." Seven murmured softly.

A cold, dead silence rang out through the library. They all stared in disbelief, before Seven shook her hands wildly. "No, no, no, it wasn't alive! We just saw it's...remains." She exhaled deeply, and so did the group. They couldn't go through that again. They were lucky enough to be alive as it was, there was no way they'd get so lucky again.

"Honestly, you gave me a heart attack!" Two chided, but he was smiling. Nine smiled sheepishly. "Sorry...I didn't mean to scare you." The group shared a laugh, glad to be rid of that mechanical monster for good.

One found himself staring into space. He, too, had suffered a mini heart attack due to Seven's lack of explanation, but now that feeling had gone and he found himself feeling something else. His chest felt cold and his feet felt glued to the ground. He wasn't too sure if it was a dream or not, but a hand on his shoulder assured him it wasn't.

He looked down to see Two's kindly face staring up at him, eyes wide and curious, yet concerned. "Are you alright? I hope that didn't scare you. I know it scared me!" He grinned, but his tone was gentle. One paused blankly, before huffing. "I wasn't scared." He said, with a smirk. Two's smile widened.

Unfortunately, that didn't ring true at around 2 in the morning. He bolted upright with a pained gasp, clutching his chest, unable to cry out. The darkness enveloping him was sending him into a fit of panic and he felt trapped unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

He couldn't stay here.

He grabbed his thin blanket, draping it over him like the cape he was once so fond of, before stumbling out of his room. He walked quickly, trying to keep calm and composed but the looming darkness and the image of that...that thing! They plagued his mind, suddenly, and he didn't know why. He broke into a kind of run, shooting down the corridor and into the main hall.

A fire was flickering in the centre of the room and One was surprised to find somebody still awake.

Six was lying over a pile of papers, scribbling lazily. One wondered if he spent the early hours of the morning drawing, or if this was just a one off. Maybe he had a nightmare and was in the same boat as One? Either way, Six was the best of the group to help him with his problem. It was no secret Six suffered from intense nightmares from time to time. Strangely enough, he always denied it when it was ever mentioned, so they tended to avoid that topic.

He cleared his throat weakly and Six looked up from his work. He looked incredibly surprised by One's presence, as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. They shared an awkward look, before Six patted the spot next to him. One looked between his soft features and the hard floor, before taking a seat. They sat in silence.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

The extent to which Six knew things was both incredible and slightly terrifying. It almost felt invasive, to One. Nonetheless, One nodded. He was bent on not saying any more about it. He generally hated sharing personal feelings, even when he was scared, or upset. This, however, was eating away at him as the minutes ticked past and he wasn't sure if he could keep it in.

It wasn't too surprisingly, but One was the kind of person to keep his personal feelings bottled up, away from other people and sometimes even himself. He was determined to overcome all his problems by himself; not because he thought he was weak. Deep down, he knew he was a weak person, guarded by harsh words and hateful thoughts, but he didn't want the others knowing he was weak.

Who was he kidding. They could see right through him; they were stupid but they weren't that stupid. He couldn't help but feel a little violated by this thought. The thought of people knowing all his secrets and fears terrified him more than anything. They could potentially use this information against him and, truth be told, he was surprised they hadn't done that already.

He sighed, brokenly and Six looked concerned. He placed a freakish hand on the leader's shoulder and patted the spot gently, careful not to smudge ink onto his fabric. "You can talk to me." He said, and One found himself feeling nauseous. How could Six say that? One absolutely refused to listen to him back in the cathedral. He purposely ignored his mad ramblings and made an effort to shut him up where necessary, and here he was, giving One the chance to talk. Something One never gave him.

This conflicted One greatly, as his head sunk down into his hands. He couldn't. He couldn't tell Six; it wouldn't be fair. But then, he couldn't tell the others either. Did he even need to tell anybody? Surely this was something he could work past by himself, like normal.

Could he?

No.

One got to his feet, tiredly, and headed back without a word, leaving Six sat by the fire.

* * *

"One."

"..."

"One!"

"..."

"One!"

"Hm?"

He looked up, to meet the curiously impatient face of Two. Two had enough patience for two people, so it was a wonder how One had managed to run it down in the space of two hours. Two sighed and his expression changed from annoyed to concerned. That expression sent a shiver up One's spine. He knew an interrogation was imminent.

"What's wrong with you? You've been looking so tired recently. Are you getting enough sleep?" Two searched his optics, as if looking for an answer. One shook his head, grumpily. "I'm fine." He said, gruffly. "Go and coddle somebody else." He added, venomously. Two backed away, looking rather offended. Suddenly, his expression dropped and he moped away. One felt a surge of guilt in his stomach, but it was incomparable to the insomnia that had plagued him for the past two weeks. He watched, sourly, as Two wandered off to talk to Five, Six and Nine.

Five lifted his head to greet Two with a smile, which was instantly replaced by concern. "Are you okay?" Two nodded, slowly. He opened his mouth to speak, but paused.

"I think...something is wrong with One." He admitted, softly. Five and Nine looked uneasy, but not worried. Six was staring into space. "I don't think he's sleeping enough. He's more cranky than ever and he just demands people leave him alone..." Two sounded progressively more upset as he spoke.

"I'll talk to him."

The trio looked at Six with wide optics. "S-Six?" Five wanted to ask just why Six was offering to talk to the grumpy leader, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. Six simply nodded, before stumbling away, presumably to confront the leader. The three watched him leave with concern.

In actuality, Six merely returned to his room, with no intention of confronting the leader at that time. Now wasn't the right opportunity to do it. There were too many people around. He had a lot of things to consider and he couldn't mess this up.

The reason Six volunteered to confront the leader, was merely because he believed to have a little more insight into the problem. If One was tired, it meant he wasn't getting enough sleep and if he wasn't getting enough sleep, then it was possible he was having nightmares. Having been told by One himself that he'd had a nightmare, the pieces seemed to fall into place.

Not only that, but Six was the most experienced when it came to nightmares. He understood that nightmares were often unexplainable. He understood when nightmares had a crippling effect on a persons day to day life. He understood that more than anybody and, having experienced it himself, he vowed to help the leader.

Truthfully, he did wonder just why he accepted. Naturally, having known what awful and repetitive nightmares entailed, he'd hate for anybody to go through that, but it didn't feel like that reasoning was enough. One, himself, had never treated Six well in the past. Yes, he'd made an effort to redeem himself but it felt like he was only doing it so he'd look a little better. So the others didn't hate him. So what other reasoning did Six have to help him, of all people?

Simple.

Six found him interesting. It was obvious to anybody that the stubborn dictator act was merely a facade, and that he was a trembling coward beneath, but was that really all it was? Six was curious to find out. He had this strange gut feeling that he and One were quite alike and he wanted to explore that.

So he waited until the following morning. There was no doubt that he'd be awake before everybody else; insomnia did that to a person. He crept out of his room, cautious not to wake anybody up. The whole point of confront him now was because everybody else would be asleep, he couldn't mess this up by being clumsy.

He made it out into the main hall unscathed and smiled.

His smile dropped when he spotted One, pacing slowly across the hall. Looks like he was right, he had awoken before the others. He wasn't quite sure how to go around confronting him but now was better than later, so he jumped right in.

* * *

"One?"

One paused, before looking up. It seemed as if his reflexes had severely deteriorated due to the lack of sleep. He didn't look surprised and he didn't seem wary of any potential dangers like normal. He just looked tired. Six felt sympathetic.

"I wanna talk to you..." Six trailed, fiddling around with the bolts on his knuckles. One raised his eyebrows in interest. He looked utterly incapable of being surprised anymore. Whether or not it was just the exhaustion or merely the face he was now rather desensitised to this kind of thing was debatable. Six was stalling in his mind.

"You've been having nightmares."

There was no point beating about the bush and asking him. He'd lie, no matter what you asked him, and Six knew better. Besides, he already knew what the problem was. Asking questions was just wasting time at this point. Luckily, One didn't deny it. He knew it was pointless, especially with Six.

He just hummed, thoughtfully. He wasn't trying to walk away or fight it. Perhaps he trusted Six with this over everybody else? He felt honoured, almost.

"What are your nightmares about?" Six asked, curiously. He expected One to sigh, snap or at the very least, look somewhat downcast. Instead, the leader just looked blank. He folded his arms behind his back and looked down.

"That horrible...machine." He said, quietly.

Suddenly, it all made sense to Six.

When Seven and Nine mentioned seeing the remnants of the machine; that must've triggered a string of nightmares. Having both been killed by the machine, Six knew just how he felt on the matter. If left alone, nightmares could become delusions, and those delusions could potentially spiral into hallucinations. One was a paranoid individual to begin with. He didn't need something like this haunting him once more, especially since Six could tell it would have a more damaging effect on somebody like him.

"What happens in them?"

One closed his optics, breathing deeply. Six purposely kept his gaze away from the leader. Being watched always added pressure to anything and although the elder was used to not only being the centre of attention, but being the centre of negative attention, it never helped when pressure was applied in situations like this.

"It's all of us, back...home, at the cathedral." The wistful pause before the word 'home' made Six feel a little bit sick. One considered the cathedral to be his true home, although he'd never admit that aloud. It was a sanctuary that he'd created for safety and he was visibly heartbroken after the attack of the winged beast. Eight probably knew that fact more than anybody. Yes, they had a peaceful life here in the library, but One would always have a longing for his old home. Six nodded silently, to show he was paying attention.

"The machine is there. He grabs for me and lifts me up." He said, softly. He doesn't sound like he's about to continue. "What are the others doing?" Six asks, as if to prompt him to continue. One's expression turns slightly pained.

"They aren't...they don't do anything. They just stand there and watch." He began to sound a little more emotional as he continued. "Just...just like I did! I stood there and watched you all die without doing a single thing!" His covered his face with his hands, suddenly, and Six wanted to reach out, but One continued, hysterically.

"They're just doing exactly what I would've done. They...they weren't even scared! It was as if they wanted this to happen! They just wanted me to die first, so maybe they'd have a proper chance at life..." He slumped to the floor, his expression unreadable. Six looked around frantically. This, he did not expect, but he wasn't entirely surprised behind the reasoning.

He had plenty reason to think this way. It was guilt, after all.

Despite spouting unpopular opinions and having the air of a coward, it wasn't like he deserved to die. It wasn't like he was a bad person. He made bad decisions and that seemed to reflect his personality in the eyes of other people. His bad decisions gave other people a bad impression of him, which both was and wasn't his fault.

He was a leader and was, by definition, under a lot of pressure to make decisions for the good of all of them. Six personally didn't know whether his decisions were made merely to save himself, or whether or not he genuinely thought that was the best course of action for all of them, but that didn't matter now.

Any mention of One's bad decisions was an unmentionable law between the others. Jumping between Nine and the machine was his own little redemption and, although it might've not been quite enough to make up for his shortcomings, nobody was able to question it any longer. Besides, it wasn't just the action itself that made up for it. It was the feelings behind it. Seven was a natural warrior, but there was no guarantee she'd do something like that. A massive gesture like that just went to show how far One had come as a person.

Unfortunately, a few of the others didn't stop to think about what a person like him was thinking. Not everybody wore their heart on their sleeve, like Five or Nine. With One, what you saw what most likely, not what you were going to get. It was likely that One had some negative feelings about himself as a person, going so far to willingly portray the villain in most situations between the group. Yes he was obnoxious and overbearing, but Six had a feeling that those aspects of his personality were amplified to overshadow the other parts that made him a person.

"We wouldn't really do that..." Six said, but he knew saying such a thing was futile. This was one of those things that could only be pacified by actions over words. One sighed brokenly. "What I don't understand is why wouldn't you? I'd leave me to die if I were in that position." One mumbled the last bit softly and Six suddenly felt uncomfortable. This sounded too suicidal for his liking and he prayed that One hadn't been fermenting in his own self loathing for long.

"Would you kill yourself?"

It was hardly subtle, but he had to know. If the answer was yes, then this was a completely different situation. One looked genuinely shocked by this and, although he paused, he shook his head. "Not actively, no. I'm just saying if I were in a situation like...say a beast was approaching to attack me, I don't think I'd resist." He rested his chin on his hands. He didn't look as hysteric as before, in fact, he seemed to have calmed down now, but Six couldn't ignore the feeling of uneasiness sitting in his stomach. What One was saying was that he'd willingly embrace death if it were staring him in the face.

"Why...?" Six questioned, softly. One looked at him with genuine surprise.

"Are you stupid?" He almost laughed. "I've spent my entire life making the wrong decisions and yes, I've done my best to change and yes, perhaps my past no longer interferes with people's perception of me, but it cannot change my perception of myself." He sighed, and smiled sadly. "I'm not going to deny that I've thought about suicide. I just doubt I'll act on those thoughts. After all, I'm too much of a coward."

Six never expected to rejoice over the leader's cowardly personality, but it was overshadowed by what he had just said. He swallowed, thickly.

"Yeah, you're a coward, but not as much as you make yourself out to be. You've made bad decisions and you continue to make them once in a while, like everybody does. I'm not justifying what you did in the past, but you weren't as responsible for our deaths as you think you are. Five's, maybe, but Two's death was down to Nine and mine was just my own fault for trying to pursue the machine. That was something I could live with though." He'd smile at the irony of his words, but it wasn't the time.

"You might hate yourself and sure, maybe some of us don't trust you either, but nobody is wishing for you to disappear. Why don't you try telling everybody else that you've thought about killing yourself. I dare you..." His voice was steely and One's optics widened a fraction.

"Can you imagine what Two would say? Or Seven. Imagine what Seven would say."

The thought of Seven seemed to hit One a lot harder and that was understandable. Seven openly despised One back then, that much was clear, but she would never wish death upon him. It just wasn't like her. One genuinely had no idea how Seven would react. He shrugged, lamely.

"She'd probably get angry." He smiled a fraction and Six sighed, before sitting opposite One. "Do you want me to?" He asked. One looked up. "Do I want you to do what?" He asked, puzzled. Six smiled, but there was no emotion behind it, as he fiddled with his fingers.

"Do you want me to tell her that you've thought about..." He stopped when One held his hand up. "Don't say it, please." He begged. "It's embarrassing enough that I confided with you, I don't want you to repeat that again." He demanded. Six nodded, sitting back on his hands. "But do you want me to?" He repeated, and One sighed deeply.

"I don't really care..." He said, softly,

"I do."

He looked up, mouth hanging open slightly. Words formed in his mouth, he could taste them, but they never escaped. Six shuffled forward, before taking One's hands in his own. He had mismatched hands now, from when his hand was destroyed. Obviously Two's handiwork.

"I care about you. We all do, but I feel like we have more in common than you think. I've kind of...always wanted to find out more about you." He smiled, shyly. "Everybody else cares about you as well. As much as it doesn't seem that way, you're an important part of this group. Nobody else could be a leader." He smiled, and One scowled. "Don't be stupid. Anybody else could make a better leader than me. It's not like I can do much else." He smiled, wryly.

"Not really. I mean...Two is too reckless to be a leader. The twins are too reclusive and can't communicate, Five is too timid, I'm too unpredictable, Seven is also too reckless, Eight is...kind of self explanatory..." He laughed, and One almost cracked a smile.

"I meant Nine. Nine should be the leader, after all, he saved us. Even if it was in a rather...unconventional way." Six immediately shook his head. "Nine would make a terrible leader. He's like me; he doesn't think. He react on gut instinct instead of thought." One actually chuckled at this, and Six beamed. "I suppose you have a point."

He gave a tiny smile. "Of all the people who would inevitably confront me about this, I didn't expect it to be you..." Six almost blushed, and One continued. "...but when I think about it, I'm glad it was you. I have a feeling you can relate more than the others." For once, Six felt proud of himself. He'd been wildly unhelpful in the past, giving only cryptic clues and not being of any physical use, but he was glad he was capable of doing something like this.

"That's why I volunteered to. I told the others I'd talk to you. If anybody else tried, it...probably would've been a disaster."

"Did you foresee it?"

"Of course, I did."

"Then...I trust you did the right thing."

* * *

This is a request fic for SilverG. Dude, I'm sorry if I messed it up. I kinda like the idea of a 1x6 friendship. w I actually really wanted to write the others reaction to Six telling the others about One but it wouldn't fit in here ;0; Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it. It seems like the start of a beautiful friendship uwu


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